Our Blog: where do you stand?

A Laptop, an iPhone and a No. 2 Pencil

By: Gretchen Schiltz | 08/01/2011

What are your top three must-haves for work? I recently polled Standing's staff and here's what they came up with:

1.       Laptop 
2.       Phone/smartphone
                 3.       (A tie) pen and pad of paper

I suspect this is a pretty good representation of the essential tools for a successful work day.

Now, take a minute and imagine how your day would look without these items. How would you do your job without your laptop, smartphone and writing tools?

Okay, now rewind a number of years ... what are your top three must-haves for school? Paper is still up there at the top of the list probably ... pencils ... erasers? Imagine you don't have these items at the ready for your first day of first grade. How would you do your job as a first grader without a No. 2 pencil, a pad of wide-ruled paper and a pencil-top eraser (all essential for learning to write)?

For 90,000 kids in the St. Louis area this is a reality.

Enter KidSmart, a local nonprofit that supplies 45,000 of these children with basic school supplies that they could not afford otherwise. Standing has proudly partnered with KidSmart on their Push for Pencils campaign for a number of years (six, in fact). And, we are gearing up once again to help collect supplies for these kids in need.

Last year, Standing and our fellow Maryville Centre tenants, with the help of Duke Realty, collected 3,105 pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, backpacks, glue sticks, etc. This year, our goal is to hit 3,500 items!

We hope you'll help us make our goal - putting pencils and paper, erasers and glue, folders and notebooks into the hands of eager, bright young learners!

We have collection boxes in the lobby of our building (540 Maryville Centre Drive) as well as several other public spaces on the Maryville Centre campus. You can also  donate (here), find a drop-off location near you (here), or just bring an extra pack of pencils the next time you visit us!

[KidSmart's most-needed supplies are: pencils, markers, crayons, glue, loose-leaf paper, scissors, spiral notebooks, backpacks, colored pencils, two-pocket folders, pens and supply boxes.]

Posted in Culture, Community Assistance